Acoustical and thermal insulators and liners for application to vehicles are well known in the art. These insulators typically rely upon both sound absorption, i.e. the ability to absorb incident sound waves and transmission loss, and the ability to reflect incident sound waves, in order to provide sound attenuation. They also rely upon thermal shielding properties to prevent or reduce the transmission of heat from various heat sources (e.g. engine, transmission and exhaust system) to the passenger compartment of the vehicle.
Over the years a number of adhesives, adhesive webs and binding fibers have been specifically developed to secure the various layers of the laminates together; however, laminated flooring systems still have an inherent risk of delamination and failure. The potential is, in fact, significant mainly due to the harsh operating environment to which vehicle flooring systems are subjected. Many vehicle flooring systems are located near and/or are designed to shield high heat sources such as the engine, transmission and exhaust system. As a result, the vehicle flooring systems are often subjected to extremely high temperatures, which have a tendency to degrade the adhesives and binders over time.
Thus, a vehicle flooring system with improved thermal and acoustic properties is desired, provided that it does not unreasonably increase the thickness and weight of the flooring system and also does not break down due to repeated exposure to high temperatures and wide ranging temperature fluctuations.